Photo of a Lost Girl
by forestwife
Summary: Donna had always been nosy. She goes exploring in the TARDIS to find answers to the Doctor, and comes across a photo of a girl that she recognises from only a few days previously. Could it be that the Doctor's Rose is no longer lost?


Disclaimer: I don't Doctor Who

Summary: Donna had always been nosy, but the only thing she picked up in the room was a photo. To her surprise she found she recognised both it's occupants; the Doctor and a blonde girl she'd once spoken to about car keys in a bin. There was only one person the girl could be. Rose.

Spoilers: Partners in Crime and Fires of Pompeii.

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Photo of a Lost Girl

Donna had always been nosy. She'd always liked to know things about people. Travelling with the Doctor, she'd learnt very quickly that there were certain things that you didn't ask him questions about. And one of those things was Rose. The woman he'd undoubtedly loved, and who was lost to him.

But Donna wasn't one to give up. Stubborn and determined, that was her. Bossy too... but that was another story. So, if the Doctor wouldn't tell her things then she'd decided she'd have to find out for herself. On one of the many occasions that she could foresee of the TARDIS malfunctioning, she abandoned the Doctor to his tinkering on his beloved ship, and went off exploring the vast interior on her own. She wandered down corridor after corridor, finding so many rooms for so many things that she wondered if it was possible that this time machine really did go on forever.

Eventually, one particular door caught her attention and she stopped. The door was closed, and it was no different from the other doors, except that this one had a handmade sign on it. A plain sheet of A4 with curly, feminine writing on it announced that this was Rose's room. Then underneath it requested, "Please knock," before adding, "And yes Jack. That means you too!" Donna snorted, laughing at the message obviously humorous and meant in good spirits. She could just imagine what had been going on previously to this sign going up. And while she didn't know who Jack was, she definitely knew who Rose was.

Donna hesitated for only a second, her hand hovering over the handle before pushing the door open and going in. After all, this was the only way she would ever really find out anything about the Doctor's legendary 'Rose', and it wasn't as if she was using the room anymore. Inside, there was nothing extraordinary about the room itself or any of its contents. It was just a typical bedroom, much like her own really. It was quite untidy, a small pile of clothes on the bed, as if the occupant hadn't been able to decide what to wear the last time they'd been in there. The desk was covered in various knick-knacks, some ordinary and of earth-origin, and then others that Donna didn't recognise, that were perhaps picked up from the Rose's own travels with the Doctor. But the only thing that Donna picked up was a photo lying on top of a small pile of books. To her surprise she found that she recognised both its occupants. One was the Doctor, and he was grinning as though at that moment he didn't have a care in the world, which she supposed that at that time he hadn't. But what really struck Donna about him was how much younger he seemed in it. He hadn't aged physically that much between the photograph and how he was now, but there was just something in his demeanour now that wasn't in the photo. Although she could tell that even in the photo, the Doctor hadn't been unburdened, now there was just that extra bit of weight on his shoulders that he carried around wherever he went.

Donna's eyes turned to the other figure in the photo, one that she recognised... and she gasped. The Doctor had his arm around a young blonde girl, who she supposed was Rose. But she had seen that very same woman not 3 days ago. Her mind flashed back to right after the incident with the Adipose, to when she'd thrown her mum's keys in the bin on the corner and run off to travel with the Doctor. She had turned to a random girl nearby and told her the message to give her mum about the bin. And looking at this photo now, Donna knew who that girl had been. It was impossible, the Doctor had said as much, and yet it was unmistakeable. It was Rose.

The photo still in her hand, Donna left the room without a backward glance, and hurried for the console room. This was something that the Doctor had to know, whether he wanted to hear it or not.

The Doctor didn't even notice when she entered the room. He was thoroughly engrossed with whatever he was doing to the TARDIS, bounding around the console, fiddling with this and tweaking that. He looked like he was so enjoying himself as well. Donna looked down at the thin piece of card in her hand. This would kill his good mood for sure. Did she really want to do it?

But really, it wasn't her decision, was it? The Doctor had a right to know. So she announced her presence, "Doctor?"

He barely even looked at her before he was off around the console again, talking almost faster than she could keep up with, "Ah, Donna! Before you start, I'm nearly done here, and then we're off! The open road!" He flicked some switches, "So! Where d'you fancy? The future? The past? You know, I still haven't met Agatha Christie... Or, we could go to the snowy mountains of Hayndon! Absolutely gorgeous planet, with blue skies, sandy beaches and tropical seas as far as the eye can see! What d'you think? Reckon I'm still good at skiing?"

His comments were so at odds with each other that Donna was thrown for a minute, "What are you on about, Spaceman? Skiing? on a beach planet?"

The Doctor looked genuinely confused, "What?" Then realisation struck, "Oh! Didn't I say? The inhabitants got so fed up with the hot weather all the time that they built the biggest snow globe ever created in that whole galaxy and put it around their biggest mountains! It's inspired! They regulate the temperature inside, keeping it nice and freezing so the people can enjoy a chilly skiing holiday for once!"

Donna said nothing. She wondered if he'd still want to go after she showed him the photo in her hand. Finally, the Doctor stopped running around. "So, fancy it?" he asked, eyes sparkling with excitement and the joy of adventure, a grin on his face. However, seeing her serious expression, the smile faded into a serious look of his own as he asked, "What is it?"

Taking a deep breath, Donna went for it. She had to know for sure that it was Rose in the photo. "Doctor? Who is this?" she asked, holding out the photo so he could see.

A glance. That was all it took. One glance. Just one. He saw the photo, and Donna knew that she had seriously emotionally thrown him off-balance. As she'd suspected it would, all emotion left his face. All traces of the energy from a mere moment ago was gone and his eyes were shuttered and barred against her, unreadable and just so... _alien_. For a second he stood so still it was as if he was carved in stone.

Then...

"Where did you get that?"

Donna almost shuddered at the iciness of his voice. She might tease him and put him down calling him 'spaceman' a lot of the time, but she knew that it was only because he didn't mind, and because he allowed it. Looking at the man before her now, she knew that this was a being that she would never want to cross. "I was just looking around," she said in a calm voice, "And I found this bedroom... a girl's room." She hesitated, almost afraid of what the Doctor would do. But when he showed no reaction at all, she continued, "And there were photos. I recognised her. So I wondered who she was."

The Doctor still said nothing, staring at the photo. But looking at him now, Donna was no longer afraid. While he was still trying to show no emotion, the ferocity of it from a moment ago was gone. His features had somehow softened around the edges, his eyes deeper and more human (not that he ever really could be). He looked like a man on the edge of an abyss. The barely noticeable tremor of his hands showing he was trying desperately not to fall in.

There was only one girl Donna had heard of that could spark this kind of reaction in the Doctor. "It's Rose, isn't it?" she heard herself ask, "The one you lost."

For a minute, the Doctor didn't say anything. He just stared at the photo in her hand. Then, dragging his eyes away, he replied in a voice almost like his usual one, "Yes, that's her. But she's happy. She's fine. She's with her family. She's living her life. She's... fine."

"What about you though, Doctor?" Donna countered gently, already knowing the answer.

Before she'd met the Doctor, Donna had thought that if there really were aliens in the universe, they wouldn't have such human emotions. When her granddad had told her there were aliens, she'd envisioned little green men incapable of feeling. But now she knew better. Although he looked like an ordinary man, the Doctor was nothing of the sort. He was an alien, as she frequently liked to point out. Being a Time Lord, she would have thought that he'd be above something as human as heartbreak. And yet here he was, buried in his grief of a lost little human girl. His Rose must really have been something special.

He of course, being more like any typical bloke than she would tell him, refused to admit that he wasn't fine. "I'm always alright," he replied, a small sad smile at the corners of his mouth.

"Now that's not true, is it Doctor?" Donna said, "I don't think you are alright. Not without her."

By now the Doctor had turned back to the TARDIS console, "I'm not—even if I—," he looked back at her, "She's lost, Donna. She's gone, and she isn't coming back." He stared ahead of him, apparently at nothing, and Donna knew that his mind was taking him to a dark place.

"That's what I need to talk to you about," she said. "I think she _is_ coming back."

This caught the Doctor's full attention. "What?" he said, coming back towards her, "What are you talking about?"

"I'm not sure," Donna began.

"Donna. Tell me."

Donna could practically feel his impatience so she dived right in. "After those Adipose things had gone. I went to get rid of my mum's car keys, right? So I put them in a bin and phoned her to tell her which one. But I knew she might not find it, so I told this girl what to tell my mum if she saw her. And, well, the girl... It was Rose."

"But it can't have been!"

"But it was," Donna countered.

"No Donna, you don't understand. It _can't_ have been. It's impossible."

Sometimes Donna wondered why she bothered. Why were all men, irrespective of their planet of origin, such complete pig-headed idiots? "Now you listen to me, _Spaceman_," she began, completely forgetting the tact she'd been trying to use around this subject with the Doctor, "Don't you tell me what I do and don't understand. I know _people._ And I can recognise _people._ And I'm telling you that the girl in this photo," she held it up right in front of him, "This girl is the one I met in the street. And if you're telling me that this girl is Rose, then that one was Rose too. Have you got that?"

The Doctor didn't answer, but he reached out and took the photo from Donna. "It was really her?" he asked in a wistful voice.

"Yes, Doctor," Donna replied, thankful that she was finally getting through to him.

"I suppose it would explain one thing that's been bothering me."

Donna didn't have a clue what he was talking about. She shook her head, "What?"

A grin spread on the Doctor's face. And involuntarily, Donna could feel one appearing on her face too. She recognised that grin. Not because she'd seen it before in her time with him, but because it was the same as the one he had in the photo with Rose. It was the smile he had for Rose, and Donna decided that it suited him.

"You remember Lucius Petrus Dextrus, don't you?" he asked playfully.

"The bloke with the stone arm?" Donna replied, "How could I forget? He was a right nutter. I've got no idea what I'm supposed to have on my back."

"Something he said to me. I didn't understand it until now," the Doctor said, his grin returning, broader than ever, "He said, 'she is returning'."

With that, the Doctor was off again, moving round the console with more energy than Donna had ever seen in him... and that was really saying something. It felt like a huge shadow had left the room, even the all the lights of the TARDIS seemed brighter. Unlike Dextrus, Donna couldn't see the future, but looking at the Doctor's grin as he rushed about, she still just knew that somehow everything would turn out right in the end.

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A/N: This is just something random that came to me and wouldn't leave however nicely I asked it! I just thought that there must be photos in the TARDIS, right?

Ok, so, hands up! Who is looking forward to Rose's return! And who thinks there's going to be a major catfight between Rose and Martha? I'm thinking it's a possibility... but Martha seems to have gotten over the Doctor already, so maybe not...

Anyways, please review and tell me what you thought!!


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